🎙 INTERVIEW: Writing, Meaning, and the Need to Matter w/ Jennifer Breheny Wallace
​** This is a LIVE interview with Jennifer Breheny Wallace about the craft of writing and reality of building a creative career.**
​What happens when the drive to produce eclipses the feeling of being valued? And how might our writing lives change if we understood mattering as a core human need?
​Jennifer Breheny Wallace is an award-winning journalist and bestselling author whose work examines the hidden forces shaping modern life. Her new book, Mattering, offers a powerful framework for understanding why so many people, including writers and creatives, feel disconnected from purpose—and how that sense can be rebuilt.
​Join us for a conversation with Jennifer Breheny Wallace about Mattering. We’ll explore how strengthening what Wallace calls our “mattering core” can help writers reconnect to purpose, sustain creative energy, and remain in relationship with their work over the long term.
​We’ll also explore:
​How writers can distinguish achievement from genuine mattering
​Why burnout and creative exhaustion often stem from feeling unseen or undervalued
​The four elements of a strong “mattering core” and how they relate to creative life
​What it means to feel relied on—but not consumed—by your work
​How being truly known (by readers, peers, or community) sustains writers
​The role of contribution and service in a meaningful writing practice
​How small, intentional acts can restore purpose during fallow or uncertain periods
​What it looks like to build cultures of mattering in creative communities
​About Jennifer Breheny Wallace
​Jennifer Wallace is an award-winning journalist and author of the New York Times bestselling book Never Enough: When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic — And What We Can Do About It, which was named an Amazon Best Book of the Year. Wallace has contributed to The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. Jennifer began her journalism career in television at “60 Minutes”. She lives in New York City.
​Your London Writers' Salon Hosts:
​Parul Bavishi and Matt Trinetti are the co-founders of the London Writers' Salon, creators of the webby-nominated Writers' Hour daily writing sessions, and hosts of the London Writers' Salon podcast.
​Parul Bavishi has been an editor for over a decade. In addition to running LWS she helps thriller, YA and non-fiction writers level up their craft and get published. She writes and edits for the Story Grid. She has worked as an editor and literary scout at Random House, Quercus & Eccles Fisher. She analyses TV hit shows (Killing Eve, Ozark, Game of Thrones) on the Story Grid Showrunners Podcast.
​Matt Trinetti is a writer, publisher, TEDx speaker, and facilitator. In addition to running LWS, Matt designs programs to help unfulfilled professionals pursue creative work, start businesses, and reinvent their careers. Matt's work has appeared in Quartz, Observer, Creative Mornings, and on his blog GiveLiveExplore.
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